In plant construction in the most varied of industries such as pharmaceutical, chemical or food industries, devices at the actuator level such as, e.g., control valves are linked with supply systems (power supply, controlling means, compressed air) by complex installations. Frequently, a multitude of actuators are each connected with lines leading to a plurality of supply sources, which results in a confusing structure of the plants.
Power and communication lines and hoses for compressed air or other fluids need to be laid over large distances and connected to the individual components using T-joints, for example. This easily creates a tangle of cables and hoses.
With this type of wiring system, there is a very high risk of error, while at the same time trouble-shooting is, of course, difficult and involved.
High installation costs are incurred. Qualified technical staff are required for commissioning, maintenance and operation of such plants.
Individual components can only be tested or pretested involving great expense.
In modern installation practice for plant engineering, distributor modules are therefore already made use of These distributor modules are limited to purely electrical functions. Thus, the installation expenditure is thereby simplified only partly.
A hybrid cable is known from robotics which allows data transfer, compressed air supply and voltage supply in equal measure. It would be desirable to be able to employ this type of cable between the actuator level and the supply level in plant construction.